Cornwall Council: New figures show hundreds of children in Cornwall experience domestic abuse

Hundreds of children in Cornwall who require additional help and support are being exposed to domestic violence, neglect, and abuse. New figures have been released to show factors recorded by professionals who help children who need care support.

They show that more than 1,000 children who are supported by Cornwall Council have been in households where one of their parents has suffered domestic abuse and more than 700 have experienced neglect.

Local councils are required to record what factors are present in cases of children in need – that is those children who need additional support. Cornwall Council's strategic director for children's services said that whilst the figures might appear high it was important to record them so that the relevant help and support can be put in place for the children affected.

Meredith Teasdale said: "Our staff are very good at identifying the factors which might be present in these cases and that is down to the relationships that they build with children and families and due to the relationships between different agencies.

"It is not unique to the southwest peninsula but it is unique in the country as a whole that we have health visitors working alongside key social workers and having them all together in an integrated approach. We put children at the centre of everything we do and we do get better identification of factors as a result."

Compared to 2020/21 the number of cases where issues such as domestic abuse were identified as factors had increased in 2021/22. This year 1,060 cases were recorded with domestic abuse of a parent identified as a factor compared to 949 the previous year.

Similarly, the number of cases where neglect was identified had increased from 676 to 745, and physical abuse had increased from 214 cases to 350 cases.

Ms. Teasdale said that there could be a number of reasons for such rises: "For some of the factors, and this is anecdotal, there could have been a rise due to the impact that lockdown had on people. And, in that sense, the cost of living, all those additional factors on family life create a different atmosphere in family homes."

Commenting on cases of domestic abuse and the impact that has on children she added: "Children are victims of domestic abuse when it is happening in the home, how can they not be? The impact psychologically and emotionally is huge, we know that. But each person, each child responds differently to that – you only need to look at a sibling group to see how they respond to those pressures.

"Our role as professionals is being able to identify those factors no matter how children are responding to them, rather than having an assumption that everybody will respond in the same way."

The factors which are identified in cases are often not isolated with some cases having multiple factors recorded, reflecting the complexity of cases that the council and its staff have to deal with.

And, over time the factors which are being recorded change. This year, for the first time, local councils have had to record how many cases where criminal exploitation is a factor.

Nationally this has shown that more than 10,000 cases of criminal exploitation were recorded, with charity The Children's Society warning that was the "tip of the iceberg". In Cornwall, there were 30 cases recorded with criminal exploitation as a factor.

Ms. Teasdale said that the council worked closely with the police to address any cases of criminal exploitation of children and said that work was being done to target the adults who are taking advantage of children.

She said that one of her biggest current concerns was online safety and grooming of children online and said that it was an area in which the council was also working with the police on.

The director said that the council was also involved with the Safer Cornwall Partnership which works to tackle issues around crime and health and well-being and she said the council was also working to ensure that parents experiencing domestic abuse and mental health issues are able to access the help and support that they need.

Nationally The Children's Society has said that more needs to be done to help local councils to protect children. Sarah Wayman, the charity's head of policy and impact, said: "More needs to be done to protect children, including earlier identification of risks such as exploitation to commit a crime, sexual abuse, mental ill-health, and domestic abuse.

"But this requires significant investment. Spending by councils on early support for families halved over the last decade following government cuts and they need urgent funding to turn this around. It's vital that they receive, as an absolute minimum, the £2.6bn recommended by the recent children's social care review to put in place early help before children and families come to harm and require even more expensive crisis support.

"It would be a false economy for the Government to shy away from this investment amid pressure for public spending cuts. In the long run, it will cost taxpayers more and jeopardise children's safety and futures."